J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Southern Coast Colour Studies c.1811-28 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Sunlit Sky and Blue Sea c.1823-5

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Sunlit Sky and Blue Sea’ c.1823-5
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Sunlit Sky and Blue Sea c.1823–5
D41468
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 257v
Watercolour on white wove paper, 188 x 270 mm
Partial watermark ‘tman | Mills | 23’
Inscribed in pencil ‘B’ bottom left and ‘257 CCLXIII’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Not mentioned by Finberg,1 this elemental ‘lay-in’ of a sunlit sky over a blue sea is the verso of Tate D25380 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 257), which shows a harbour scene in similar colours.

Matthew Imms
July 2016

1
See A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.834.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Sunlit Sky and Blue Sea c.1823–5 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-sunlit-sky-and-blue-sea-r1184406, accessed 20 April 2024.